In short, I need to make a change in my home. My Mother and 90 year old Grandmother live in my in-law suite. My Mother is retired, and essentially cares for my Grandmother.

It's become clear my Mother cannot control my four month old Pup, so I need to remove them from the daily while-we're-at-work caring equation. They love my Pup, but she's just too much for them.

So, what to do? I have two non-carpeted climate controlled sunrooms with ceiling fans I can work with, and a crate, of course.

I don't think I can keep her in a crate for 12 hours (I leave my home at 6:45am, and I'm not back until about 6:15p). However, if I just put her in a sunroom, she's going to potty anywhere, and likely eat her waste.

I could set up a divider with a doggy door cutting the sunroom in half, and place a bunch of training pads with that "attractant" stuff in one half (apparently there's stuff you spray to direct them to potty where you spray) but I've no idea if that would work, hence this thread.

The downstairs sunroom has a glass and screen door that leads out to a fenced in dog run about 25ft long and 5ft wide. I suppose I could convert the sliding door to a "regular" door with a doggy door, but I'd really rather not go this route as it seems it could be a security issue. Plus, someone could lure her out and steal her.

I would probably either hire a walker who can swing by a couple times a day for a four month old pup and exercise her before crating her again or look for a place with a doggy day camp type set up. 12 hours is WAY long to leave her by herself even if she was set up with pads and such. Maybe if she was older. But she needs some sort of interaction in there on top of hopefully a walk and short training session before you go and after you get home.

Whilst I think 12 is a long time to leave a pup by itself. It won't kill it. There are many dogs which grow up in far worse conditions.
I think a kennel run will be best, plenty of room to run around and tire out.
Best to leave a big bone, a kong and lots of toys.

Not sure HOW far NW you are of Atlanta, or how far you'd be willing to commute to pick up and drop off your pup, but I know there are quite a few great day cares in the ATL area. I lived in ATL for a bit and my work scenario also left me looking for options in regards to my pup. He loved daycare and came home pooped everyday. My suggestion is to make sure you tour any daycare you look into-if you decide to go that route. And make sure to get a feel for the folks there. Make sure they love dogs and love what they do. There are even some daycares that offer training for the pup while they are there (not a bad idea since pups can pick up bad habits playing with other pups all day).

My only struggle was that I HAD to spend time every night doing some training exercises with him for the above reason--he was learning some bad manners hanging out with the 'bad crowd'

PM me if you'd like me to make some daycare suggestions for you. I'd be more than happy to help!

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